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Take time out to celebrate our veterans and Memorial Day

Posted: May 30, 2012 - 12:21am

Savannah

Note: This archived column is dedicated to my father, Donald William Herbkersman, an Army Ranger and Korean War veteran, as well as the Sun City Veteran’s Club and all Beaufort County veterans. We will never forget.

It was my intention to talk about the budget today. The state budget is important and a big part of what you send me to Columbia to get accomplished. It is a reasonably clear statement of the political philosophy held by the overwhelming majority of your elected officials as it applies to the day-to-day operation of the state. The budget is a statement of values above and beyond any political rhetoric, because we spend money on what we value. If we fund it, we care about it.

However, with Memorial Day upon us, and especially as we are at war, I have been thinking about some of the larger issues and some of the more enduring values than perhaps those that are simply represented as line items in a budget.

The South, as a region, contributes to the ranks of the armed forces in numbers proportionally higher than our population would suggest. South Carolina is very well represented, even by the southern standard. And Beaufort County, with its large concentration of active duty military personnel, as well as many military retirees, is more than passing familiar with the sacrifices entailed in the defense of the republic.

We have Memorial Day to remind ourselves that what we so often take for granted, the gifts that our splendid nation has so amply provided, were not gifts in the sense that they were without cost.

My generation has fathers and grandfathers that did not return from the Second World War or the Korean Conflict. We have brothers lost in the jungles of Viet Nam and now we have children, sons and daughters, leaving their lives in the harshness of Afghanistan and Iraq. From Cowpens to Kirkuk, our freedom has been anything but free. From Camden to Quang Tri to Sadr City, brave young patriots gave their lives so that we might carry forward this great act of faith we call America.

I’m not a constitutional scholar and I don’t often try to sort out the size of the bricks in the wall between church and state. I do know the argument is suspended when you pass through the gates of the Beaufort National Cemetery. It has no currency when you view the thousands of silent markers at Arlington National Cemetery. Each of our national heroes was carried to his or her rest by the God of their individual understanding. The grief of those left behind was lightened by the rituals and ceremonies of the many faith traditions we together embrace.

I hope you have a good holiday. Get outside and enjoy our wonderful clean river and lush, green landscape. As you do, please also give some thought and perhaps a prayer of gratitude for those who helped secure the blessings we enjoy.

Next week, I will get back to the budget and let you know what we are doing with your money. I’m also going to start giving a little more mention to the many generous and interesting contributors to the vitality of our community.

Please indulge my Memorial Day departure from business as usual. I think sometimes we need to slow down and refocus on the big ideas. It may be another reason we call it the House of Representatives.

Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, represents District 118 in the South Carolina House of Representatives. He can be reached through his website at www.herbkersman.com or by telephone at 757-7900.

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